Changing Policies

I used to be a regular shopper at a local grocery store called County Market. Their prices have always been the best around but, several months ago, I went in, shopped as usual and handed the cashier a few coupons that I had clipped from the Sunday paper and a couple that I had printed off the internet. She told me that they didn't accept internet coupons. I was a bit irritated and I went over to the office and told them that they had just lost a customer. I go back to get a few things that are on sale here and there, but the bulk of my shopping has since been at the Super Walmart. Of course, a brief look back at last month's blog posts prove that I have only recently really become immersed in couponing. So, today, I took my rather large stack of internet coupons along with my coupon binder, into County Market and asked if they took internet coupons yet. The answer was no. I asked why and got the same story as last time - too much fraud. I asked to speak to whoever would be in charge of this and Dave Knopp came to speak with me. I showed him my stack of internet coupons and told him that I wanted them to see these coupons because these were the coupons I'd be using this month alone (along with my clipped coupons). I didn't expect much and he started to explain the fraud story so I pointed out that each ogf my coupons had a bar code, company information, expiration date, etc. and that several other stores took the coupons. He asked which and I told him Giant Eagle among others. This seemed to surprise him. He asked to look at my coupons so I handed him the stack of coupons and he took them to the office manager and they looked at them. When he came back, he said that the coupons looked like regular coupons and he didn't expect that and we talked several minutes more and he announced that he would take my coupons today and that by next week, he would likely have a new policy in place. I was quite happy but I still wasn't expecting much to come from it. Sometimes, stores take a while to hem and haw over things before they actually make changes. So, I took a cart and went to grab a few items since he said he would take my coupons. I didn't want to make a big deal of things and then leave without using any coupons. Maybe 10 minutes later, I was in the cereal aisle when he came walking up and sad "Policy changed!" He had already called Giant Eagle to check on how they ran the coupons and decided on the spot to change their policy too. I was really amazed! We had another pleasant conversation and he asked if there was anything else besides the coupon thing that I thought the store could improve upon and I told him that I was pleased with the store in every other way. After that, I finished the rest of my shopping and price checking and headed to the checkout. The cashier started to tell me that she couldn't take my internet coupons, which we expected. So I told her that Dave just changed the policy and he had said to call him when I checked out. The office manager, Debbie, was nearby, so she came over and told the cashier about the change - take the coupons as long as they scanned. Sure enough, they scanned and we were all happy. I didn't go into County Market today expecting to change their coupon policy, but that's what happened. Awesome! Dave was quite friendly and told me he was impressed with my coupon knowledge. Before I left, I went back to the service desk and gave him the copy of the Giant Eagle coupon policy I had in my binder. He was thrilled with that and even said that he should hire me! LOL It was a good day for shoppers in the Grove City area!